Dino Mite

[MKIRKALDY@aol.com]

Thursday's edition of Nature (12/10/98, 396, 528 - 529)  has 
an article about possible parasites on fossil feathers. "Did dinosaurs 
come up to scratch?" by David M. Martill and Paul G. Davis. 
An excerpt:

"The recent discovery of dinosaurs with feathers3 suggests that 
birds may have inherited some of their ectoparasites from feathered
 theropod dinosaurs. We have now found microscopic egg-like structures 
on the surface of a fossil feather of approximately 120 million years old
 from the Crato Formation (Lower Cretaceous period) of northeast Brazil. 
They closely resemble the eggs of ectoparasitic feather mites and 
indicate an early origin for this specialized group of Acari."

Mary
mkirkaldy@aol.com